Microsoft Groove adds curated playlists in its latest update for iOS and Android

Microsoft Groove – a music service that many people are not aware of, despite it being pre-installed on every Windows 10 device. The service is Microsoft’s answer to Apple Music and Google Play Music.

Groove isn’t Microsoft’s first foray into the music streaming business – in fact, Microsoft was one of the first ones to introduce a music subscription streaming service with Zune, Microsoft’s failed attempt to compete with Apple’s iPod revolution.

Unlike Microsoft

In stark contrast with the rest of Microsoft – the Groove app is better on Windows 10 Mobile than it is on competing platforms such as iOS and Android. The reason – probably – comes from Groove being a UWP app, and therefore sharing the same code-base across Windows 10 devices – something of a luxury for the Office team, for example.

The Update

The latest update to both iOS and Android apps brings something that the Windows 10 Mobile app have had for months – curated playlists.

These playlists are curated by Groove editors – by hand – and feature songs from various genres for different moods and settings. You can find these new playlists under the Explore tab.

With this update, the Android and iOS Groove apps have come closer to the Windows 10 version – but they haven’t hit feature parity yet.

Algorithmically generated playlists – a feature present in almost every music streaming service – including Groove Music – are still only present in the Windows 10 app. The Android and iOS do not have this simple feature.

Considering Google recently announced significant improvements for their automatically generated playlists on Google Play Music, it should be a priority for Microsoft to bring their version of these playlists to Android – for competition; alas, that is not the case.